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Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Beyond the fact that I’m not traveling with the team this week, it just seems very disjointed that with 14 games remaining, the team is playing two Western Conference foes rather than battling it out with teams they are jockeying with for playoff position. I know the reports were from California yesterday that Monday’s golf outing was a great team bonding experience. Personally, though, I like the tension of facing teams you’re more familiar with at this stage.

Also out of practice yesterday, if I didn’t highlight it sufficiently, the admission that not only will Henrik Lundqvist play both games on this California trip, he’s likely to play the rest of the way. That would be 26 straight starts to finish the regular season, then, presumably, however many games the Rangers would play in the playoffs.

Here’s some more preview info:
Rangers at Ducks
Tonight, 10:30
TV: MSG Plus
Radio: WNYM-AM 970
Storyline: The Rangers (25-29-4) have won two straight overall and three in a row on the road. RW Ryan Callahan (20 goals, 19 assists) needs one point to tie his career high, set in 2008-09. The Ducks (35-26-5) are 20-11-2 at home and are two points out of a playoff spot.
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Enforcer Derek Boogaard, out since Dec. 9 with a concussion, did not make this two-game California trip, though he was in no danger of being back in the lineup. He just would not say last week when asked whether he was going.

I, too, am not with the boys this week and am instead following from afar, currently at my dining room table. Let’s face it, I don’t disagree with this decision: Six nights of hotel and other expenditures to cover two games that would not make it into The Record because of their start times. So I did yard work today.

The Rangers did practice at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Per the attending media, the lines were the same, everybody skated, Henrik Lundqvist will start his 13th game tomorrow and, otherwise, coach John Tortorella said he would reveal his healthy scratches tomorrow. To me, it seems the choice will likely come down to Erik Christensen or Sean Avery up front and I don’t foresee Steve Eminger rejoining the lineup.

About

ANDREW GROSS covers the New York Rangers for The Record and Herald News, having joined the North Jersey Media Group in November 2007. Gross also covered the Rangers and New York Jets, as well as St. John’s basketball and Army football, for Gannett Newspapers and The Journal News (N.Y.). He graduated from Syracuse University in 1989 with a degree in newspaper journalism.